In the movies: The Hunting Ground

Documentary reveals truth about campus sexual assaults

“The Hunting Ground” takes a scathing look into sexual assaults on college campuses. Directed by Kirby Dick, the film opens with videos and inspirational messages to students who have just started their freshman year of college.

Annie Clark a student at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill describes her first few days of college. Before classes even started, Clark was raped.

Instead of being given support, Clark got blamed and questioned.

Countless young women and a young man then tell their story of what was told to them. Every single one was asked “what were you wearing and what were you doing?” One was even told to drop out of school until the “situation blew over.”

One woman reported that it seemed as if the college was protecting the offender rather than the victim.

Every single person said they were shocked that the school never did anything for the victim.

Which one of the reasons why 88 percent of the sexual assaults on campuses do not get reported.

Why are colleges so reluctant to help the victims?

To protect the image of the college.

Some colleges will claim that they are trying to prevent punishing students who are actually innocent.

Clinical psychologist David Lisak estimated that only 2 to 8 percent reports of sexual assaults are actually fake. This means over 90 percent of reports are true. Only 26 percent of rapes reported to the police actually lead to an arrest.

The documentary is probably one of the best concerning this issue that I have ever seen. It handles the sensitive information in an astonishing way, which is how it is supposed to be.

If you don’t hear the audience getting frustrated when an interview shows a school administrator saying that the accounts of multiple victims are false, then the director did something wrong.

The heart-wrenching, angering and overall astonishing interviews about several different assaults causes almost anyone to take a step back and think about the culture around sexual assaults.

One of the best parts of the documentary is when it discusses attacks against men. There is such a gross neglect on the issue that it is actually difficult to gather statistics on the issue.

Students who came to the documentary showing will be leaving, hopefully, with a changed outlook on sexual assaults on campuses.

Despite news stories, people are still unaware of how often sexual assaults happen on campus. Hopefully with this, students’ eyes will be opened to the epidemic that is occurring all over the nation.

The common theme that is repeated over and over is that rape and sexual assault happens across the nation. This means that no victim is alone.

Advocates featured implore victims to fight for justice and to fight until sexual assaults on campuses are addressed.

One of the most startling parts was seeing college presidents of different universities allowing known rapists and attackers play a sport for the college and only a few were actually expelled from the sport or college after the ‘big game.’

The end of the documentary had me in near tears because it showed scenes all across the nation of students taking a stand against the atrocities that they have faced.

Now over 95 schools are being investigated federally for Title IX violations. Which just proves that when students ban together change can start to happen.

The movie leaves the audience with saying that if nothing changes then over 100,00 students will be assaulted within the next year.

If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted then please seek help from the Haven House, counseling center or campus security.